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University of Correfuscidia
The University of Correfuscidia, often called Correfuscidia University '''or simply '''Correfuscidia, is the oldest and most prestigious university in the world. Located in Correfuscidia, Gloernivard, directly along the first meridian and only twenty north of the equator, the University was founded by the ancient Rramidi travelers who established the city as a haven of research and learning in 226 BCE, and has continued to be the preeminent center of scholarship and learning in the world ever since, referred to as simply the "University" for over a thousand years. The University of Correfuscidia was fostered by the Anglean Empire, which transformed the university and made the city one of the empire's capitals; as the Angleans established their dominance over most of the world, Correfuscidia became the center of learning for the world. For many hundreds of years after the fall of Anglea, was heavily tied up with the government of Rramidor for many hundreds of years after the fall of Anglea. During this period, the Houses of Varagon and Corinthi, which each established colleges of the university, fought for control of the university until the Gloern Emperor Atlas I of Corinthi gave up control of the university to a board of academics and it became officially privatized. Despite this, the university is heavily sponsored by government and International Alliance money and remains a very important voice in the city of Correfuscidia. Even though Correfuscidia has come to be very graduate focused, with more than twenty professional schools containing some 10,000 graduate students, its undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences (colloquially referred to as "College") is particularly famous, generally considered the most prestigious and rigorous of any university in the world. It is also well known for its system of colleges, which serve as separate institutions within the university; these colleges require separate admission, and each have their own housing, dining halls, libraries, gyms, and academic requirements, and are managed mostly by their own students. There are twenty-one colleges, including a number that speak languages other than English - notably San Marco, Rajama, and Aster - even though English serves as the de facto ''official language of the university within the Rramidi-speaking region of Rramidor. In addition to its college system, the university has a central library, the Library of Correfuscidia, which is the largest library in the world, containing almost 200,000,000 items, including fifteen million books in over a hundred different languages. History The history of Correfuscidia goes here. Academics Admissions The University of Correfuscidia is often considered to be the most academically rigorous school in the world, and has the lowest acceptance rate of any major world university at around 4.8%. Acceptance to Correfuscidia is a rigorous process: not only to students have to complete their ordinary tests, but they must take an additional examination (the CEE - Correfuscidia Entrance Exam) which asks students twenty subjective or extremely difficult questions that are aimed to test both their quantitative (scientific) abilities as well as their logic and writing skills. Students are not expected to arrive at the correct answer on these questions - and, in fact, there often is no single correct answer - but are instead scored on their quality of their thinking and how they reasoned out the problems. Correfuscidia uses these tests to narrow down their massive applicant pool to those students with truly original ways of thinking, and claims that, even though the test takes much more work to grade than a standardized examination would, it allows them to admit students based more on their overall intelligence rather than their test-taking skills. Students must also write two essays: their standard college essay, which tells a story that they believe is integral to their life, as well as an essay on the field that they wish to study in college (or, if undecided, a field that greatly interests them at the moment). Within this second essay, also unique to Correfuscidia, the student is intended to show their passion for that field, why they believe it is important, and also demonstrate their knowledge. Correfuscidia ostensibility admits students based solely on their academic credentials. Unlike other schools, which take into account students' extracurriculars and how "well-rounded" they are, as well as factors such as athletic scholarships, legacy and faculty connections and diversity, Correfuscidia bases their admissions decisions almost entirely on the CEE and the students' academic records, particularly in the fields that they indicated that they would like to study at the University. Because of this, the Correfuscidian student body looks quite different than the student bodies at many other colleges, with a student body that is less diverse and well-rounded but universally academically motivated. Schools The majority of Correfuscidia's undergraduates - some 8,000 students - attend the College of Arts and Sciences, the main body of the undergraduate university, offering its traditional majors in humanities and sciences. All students at the twenty-one residential colleges are within this school, colloquially referred to as "College." It is almost universally considered the most academically rigorous and prestigious undergraduate college in the world. However, the University has a number of other schools. The Andragine School of Art was founded in the city in 720 in response to their expulsion from the Academy of Art in Boskator, and is now hosts some three hundred graduate students and forty undergraduates. Students at Andragine study visual arts and their intersections into other fields. The university has a number of other art schools, including the Correfuscidia School of Architecture (ranked 4th globally), the Raymin Music School (ranked 6th globally), and the Academia Dramatica. Programs of Study The College of Arts and Sciences offers a wide selection of majors, and its programs of study are often considered to be universally good - unlike many universities that specialize in certain fields, Correfuscidia attracts top scholars in almost every field. Nevertheless, the school is particularly famous for its programs in the sciences, in history and in international law. The most popular majors at Correfuscidia are biology, physics and economics. Campus Write the second section of your page here. Colleges The University of Correfuscidia does not provide students with room or board, and has no academic requirements aside from a major and, as of 1980, a senior thesis. However, students live in colleges, which are self-governing 'Varagon and Corinthi' Aside from Petros, the two oldest colleges at Correfuscidia are Varagon (established in 244 by the House of Varagon, from a small island southeast of the city) and Corinthi (established in 253 by the House of Corinthi, from the town of Corintha). For hundreds of years, Corinthi and Varagon competed for students and influence, variously seizing control over the city and the university. Today, however, Corinthi and Varagon, both relatively small and located very close to the center of campus, are considered "sister colleges," and are the only two colleges in the university that continue to operate in the native language of Rramidi. Although neither require any specific major, Varagon and Corinthi both have very strict distributional requirements that make students study Rramidi, English and a foreign language as well as study classic literature and philosophy of Rramidor and Anglea ever since the establishment of Correfuscidia. Varagon and Corinthi co-host the Rramidi major, and offer majors in philosophy, physics and economics taught in Rramidi. Despite this, the two colleges together have fewer than 500 students, with 212 at Varagon and 234 at Corinthi. They are separated by the Via Collegia in similar looking ancient buildings, each centered around an interior courtyard. Corinthi is well known for the Tower of Corinthi, a large bell tower, while Varagon is known for the Fenetras Varagonas, a number of elaborate stained class windows on one end of the Aspian Hall, Varagon College's largest hall. In intercollegiate athletic and academic competitions, the two colleges will sometimes join their teams together as "Team Rramidi" in order to better compete against some of the other, larger colleges. 'Angevin College' Angevin College, founded by the Anglean Emperor as the English-speaking college at Correfuscidia, is the largest college at the university with almost 1,000 students. Unlike some colleges, it is not centered around a single major or department, although most Angevin students plan on majoring in the social sciences and humanities. Angevin College itself is separated into a number of houses, each one housing approximately a hundred students. The original college is surrounded by a wall; today, this area contains three houses surrounding the Angevin quad as well as the college's main library and Angevin Commons, the central building of the college's campus. The old buildings are considered to be Anglean gothic, and are often considered to be very beautiful. Newer buildings around the old campus are built in a similar style, including the other nine houses, the new, spacious cafeteria and the Daniel Webber Gymnasium. Angevin College also contains the campus's largest auditorium and twenty soundproofed music practice rooms, while each house contains its own kitchen, common space, and other amenities. Students generally live in singles and doubles organized into suites and floors in each house, and each house is run by a committee of seniors and has a dean. Angevin College is student-run, and it has a dean, the historian John Wright. The Student Assembly of Angevin College contains forty-six students, headed by an elected Student President. This assembly, along with Dean Wright, oversee the residential conditions of the college and make sure that it is running smoothly. They also deal with smaller-scale disciplinary issues that need not be sent to the university disciplinary committee and help organize college-specific social events, as well as registering student parties. Angevin College has a number of its own traditions, and the Student Assembly runs three all-college dances a year. Angevin College has several requirements in addition to the standard Corresfucidia requirements of a major and a senior thesis: students are required to take at least two classes in humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in their freshman and sophomore year. It also requires students to reach a certain level of proficiency in a foreign language, although students may test out of this, and take at least one writing-intensive class every year. All Angevin students also must take an Angevin Freshman Seminar their first semester, which are very small writing seminars (6-10 students) organized by theme open only to Angevin freshman. The small seminars are known to foster a sense of Angevin spirit. 'Alexandria College' Alexandria College is located on the East Quad, notable for the Great Tower, a large, Sednyanese gothic tower that looms over the college's courtyard. Alexandria has 826 students, most of whom focus in humanities and social sciences; history is the most popular major at Alexandria, followed by economics and English literature. Unlike some of the other large colleges, Alexandria does not have separate houses, and all of its students live together in a number of sprawling residential buildings. Alexandria was Correfuscidia's sixth college, founded on order of Sednyanese Emperor Alexander I to represent Sednyana at Correfuscidia, and as a place for Sednyanese to study at the University. However, since its establishment, Alexandria has become very much an international college, and, although it remains more Sednyanese than other colleges, with around 20% Sednyanese students, the majority of its students come from different countries; approximately the same number, 20%, hail from Lasterus, and another 15% come from the Basalteinell Federation. Alexandria is highly competitive with Angevin College, and the two are frequently set against each other in academic and athletic contests. Like the other large colleges, Alexandria has its own dining hall, gymnasium, library, and kitchens, along with an art gallery and a music building, Thompson Music Hall. 'Michael B. Ceylon College' The Michael B. Ceylon College, named for the prominent nineteenth century Lasterian biologist who is often considered the father of modern genetics and usually called simply Ceylon College, was founded in 1962 as a college centered around the life sciences, and is now the second largest college at the university with around 800 students. Ceylon College itself hosts the Life Sciences Division and offers six majors: cellular and developmental biology (CDB), ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), biochemistry, neuroscience, and biotechnology. 70% of the undergraduates who choose to live at the college for all four years choose one of these majors, although Ceylon students may pick any major at the university. Ceylon College is headed by the dean Sarah Adden, a professor of biology who often teaches the 300-student introductory cellular biology course, as well as the elected Student Committee of Ceylon College, comprised of eighteen seniors and two juniors who make most of the decisions at the college level. There are a number of requirements for Ceylon undergraduates; aside from the university's standard requirements of a major and a senior thesis, Ceylon College has a distributional requirement insisting that students take two humanities classes and two social science classes in their first two years at Correfuscidia, as well as a writing in science class and any other writing intensive class at the university. Students at Ceylon must also take a total of at least four credits in the natural sciences - including at least two out of chemistry, biology and physics - and must take a calculus course. The vast majority of Ceylon students are majors in STEM fields. The central building of the college is the award-winning Michael B. Ceylon Center for the Life Sciences, the university's second largest building after the Library of Correfuscidia constructed in 2000. The Ceylon Center features a massive, glassed-in inner courtyard and arboretum which is surrounded by various labs and offices. The residential housing for Ceylon College students is located mostly behind the Ceylon Center, in a number of interconnected houses all named after various famous scientists, including Winston House, Grammel House, Stephenson House, and Royen House. Ceylon College housing is very modern and spacious, and is often considered some of the best at the university. The Ceylon Center includes its own library, and the college housing includes a dining hall, Addison Hall after the Varanelli neuroscientist Nathaniel Addison, a gymnasium, a café, two large communal kitchens and several soundproofed music rooms. Most students live in suites of four to eight centered around a common room and a bathroom; while freshman are paired up randomly in single-gender suites, sophomores, juniors and seniors may choose their own roommates. Freshman suites are each assigned a counselor from the junior or senior class. Juniors and seniors are also allowed to live off campus and can choose not to sign on to a Ceylon meal plan (which allows students to eat at any of the university's cafeterias) although the vast majority do. '''Armour College' Located across from Alexandria is Armour College, founded some hundred years later after James Armour. Armour College is known for its focus on the social sciences and the Gavelhan College Gavelhan College was founded in 1489 in honor of the Lord of Gavelhan, and is located in an Anglean Gothic quad located around a central court, famous for its beautiful ivied walls and its "five towers." Gavelhan students are not dominated by a particular major, but they tend to lean more toward humanities and social sciences rather than hard sciences; Gavelhan has quite strict distributional requirements that are often called the "Gavelhan Core" and are intented to "foster the development of well-rounded scholars with proficiencies across all fields of academic inquiry." Estram College Estram College was founded in 1723 for the poet and historian Herodos Estram. It is sometimes called the "poet's college" because it has a higher than usual concentration of writers and English majors; it requires a special freshman seminar in essay writing, fiction or poetry within the first year and has no natural science or mathematics requirement. Arts are popular at Estram, and it is the college with the highest concentration of fine arts and drama majors. Mystras College Mystras College was founded alongside Estram College in 1723 after the Correfuscidian natural philosopher Geonhard Mystras, and is known for a stronger emphasis on science and medicine relative to the more Classical and humanities-focused Estram college. This is largely because its requirements include three courses in the natural sciences and a course in mathematics. Mystras has a number of notable alumni, including the revered scientists Michael B. Ceylon and William Nash. = Bantam College Correfuscidia's youngest college was named for Zephros Bantam, a Correfuscidia history professor specializing in Rramidi history who worked at the university for over sixty years before his retirement in 2002, teaching notable figures such as James Ardmore, Christina James, and two of the major beliigerents of the Great Rhamidian War, César Antov and Iosef Barrasa. Harold Kröm, a billionaire graduate of Correfuscidia, gave fifty million dollars to the university for the creation of a new college in honor of Bantam, his favorite professor, in 2006. According to Kröm's wishes, Bantam College has no requirements except that students must spend at least one term abroad, studying in another country, and does an enormous amount of outreach and recruitment in developing countries. Bantam has a modern campus, located east of Ceylon, near the water. It is largely open and green, containing the Bantam Greenhouse and a nimber of exotic plants. Bantam has 489 students, and is often considered to have the quirkiest and most unusual student body at the university, attracting students from a wide variety of unusual backgrounds who wish to study a range of subjects freely in an open environment. Many Bantam students opt to create their own majors, which need to be approved as legitimate by the Bantam Assembly. Bantam also has a large arts program, and has the largest percentage of students majoring in the arts of any Correfuscidia college. San Marco College San Marco College is Corresfucidia's Qotian college, and the largest non-English speaking college on campus with nearly 400 students. San Marco hosts the departments of Qotian literature and Qotian history, Rajama College Rajama College is Correfuscidia's Toranese college Ossyevin College The Noriki college Golor College The Gloern college Rhenspied College The Ulam college Student Life and Traditions Correfuscidia is a medium sized research university. It has 10,116 undergraduate students hailing from 44 countries and speaking more than 50 different first languages, as well as 12,649 graduate students. People 'Students' 'Faculty and Staff' 'Alumni' The University of Correfuscidia has had thousands of notable alumni over more than two millenia, ranging from ancient philosophers to modern world leaders. Correfuscidia has alumni from every country with the exception of the Central Islands, and currently has alumni living in 49 countries. Some of the most notable include (but are not in any way limited to): Vidrian (c. 120-199), the father of geometry and the geometric proof thanks to his work On the Nature of Shapes Leonid Marthekos (644-702), often accredited as the inventor of algebra Michael B. Ceylon (1839-1922), Lasterian-Correfuscidian biologist, often known as the "Father of Genetics" César Antov (1925-1976), Supreme Leader of Rhamidia and main belligerent during the Great Rhamidian War Iosef Barrasa (1926-1984), Chief of the Basaltianeilli armed forces during the Great Rhamidian War